The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research extends a warm welcome to Barbara S. Jones, the newest member of our Board of Directors. Judge Jones, who is today a partner in the Texas-based law firm Bracewell, presided over a wide variety of cases while on the bench at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. At Bracewell, she specializes in white-collar defense, corporate compliance and internal investigations.
Judge Jones obtained her law degree from the Temple University School of Law and began her career as a special attorney in the Honors Program of the U.S. Department of Justice, assigned to the organized crime unit of the Criminal Division. She next served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, a role in which she tried a number of significant organized crime cases before being appointed chief of the Organized Crime Strike Force in Manhattan.
Judge Jones was chief assistant to Robert M. Morgenthau, then-District Attorney of New York County, when she was nominated to the Federal bench by Bill Clinton in 1995. During her 16 years at the New York District Court, Judge Jones presided over cases involving accounting and securities fraud, public corruption, labor racketeering and organized crime. She also adjudicated cases that raised fundamental constitutional questions. Her ruling in United States vs. Windsor that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violated the equal protection clause of the US Constitution was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court. She retired from the bench in early 2013.
“We are very excited to have Judge Jones join our board,” said Edward McDermott, President and CEO of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. “Her probing intellect, knack for problem solving and balanced judgment will bolster the high quality of the board we are privileged to have and certainly enrich its deliberations.”